Denso turns up the heat

Japan's largest supplier is developing environmentally friendly products such as its flagship HVAC systems to make customer vehicles cooler but more efficient.

Chief Engineer Moritaka Yoshida of the new Lexus LS 460 and 600h praises Denso's contribution to the development of the most complex and sophisticated automobile that Toyota has undertaken. Indeed, Denso's endeavors in the LS are large and impressive. The world's firsts are the electric-motor-driven variable-valve-timing device, security system with remote immobilizer function, and an inertial sensor for vehicle stability control that incorporates the vehicle attitude and inclination, sensing theft attempts by jacking and lifting.

Other advanced technologies in the LS include an instrument cluster with thin-film transistor display, the world's thinnest key card, an HVAC system featuring individually customized air conditioning to each seat, new pre-crash safety system components including millimeter-wave radar and stereo-camera systems, information and communication systems including navigation, a management ECU that ensures replenishment of the battery, and, of course, the fuel-injection system for Toyota's dual-injector D-4S direct fuel injection.